As the development of nanoscale mechanical, electrical, chemical and biological devices and systems increases, new processes are needed to fabricate nanoscale devices and components. This is especially true as the scale of these structures decreases to the tens of nanometers and below. The creation and replication of patterns is a key operation in the fabrication process. For example, in chip fabrication, optical lithography tools may be used to print the circuit patterns. However, optical lithography is prohibitively expensive as length scales decrease, and may reach technological impasses at about 30 nanometers and below.